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Germanic · Deutschland

Numbers in
Deutsch

Erst die Eins, dann die Zehn
10 minread
7sections
1 und 20= 21
327
dreihundertsiebenundzwanzig
00

The big picture

German numbers do one famously weird thing: from 21 upward, the unit digit comes first, followed by und, followed by the ten. Then the whole thing is written as one long word. Once you internalize that flip, everything else is bookkeeping.

i
If you only remember one thing: 21 is einundzwanzig — literally "one-and-twenty." So is 87 (siebenundachtzig, "seven-and-eighty"). You write the digits in English order but say them in reverse.
01

Zero to twenty

Mostly straightforward — 13–19 are formed as digit + zehn. Two contract: sechzehn drops the s from sechs, and siebzehn drops en from sieben.

0
null
→ ein/eine
1
eins
2
zwei
3
drei
4
vier
5
fünf
6
sechs
7
sieben
8
acht
9
neun
10
zehn
11
elf
12
zwölf
13
dreizehn
14
vierzehn
15
fünfzehn
drop s
16
sech·zehn
drop en
17
sieb·zehn
18
achtzehn
19
neunzehn
20
zwanzig
i
Eins vs ein. Standalone, 1 is eins (with the s). In any compound — 21, 101, 1001 — it drops to ein: einundzwanzig, einhunderteins. (Yes, the trailing 1 in 101 takes the s back, because it's standing alone again at the end.)
02

The tens (20 – 90)

Almost a perfect -zig pattern, with three exceptions. Dreißig swaps to -ßig. Sechzig drops the s. Siebzig drops the en. Memorize those three; the rest you can build.

20
zwanzig
ß, not zig
30
dreißig
40
vierzig
50
fünfzig
drop s
60
sech·zig
drop en
70
sieb·zig
80
achtzig
90
neunzig
03

21 – 99: the flip

The unit goes first, the ten goes second, joined by und ("and"), all written as one word. This is the move every English speaker stumbles on.

English
21
twenty-one
order: TEN → UNIT
big number first, like English digits read
Deutsch
21
einundzwanzig
order: UNIT → und → TEN
small number first, then "and", then the ten
1 und 20
21
einundzwanzig
22
zweiundzwanzig
25
fünfundzwanzig
29
neunundzwanzig
3 und 30
33
dreiunddreißig
47
siebenundvierzig
7 und 50
57
siebenundfünfzig
68
achtundsechzig
76
sechsundsiebzig
4 und 80
84
vierundachtzig
95
fünfundneunzig
99
neunundneunzig
9 + und + 90 — flipped, fused
!
Listen to phone numbers carefully. A German saying "32" produces zweiunddreißig — your ear hears zwei ("two") first and may want to write "2" before realizing the ten is coming. With practice you start hearing the whole word as one chunk; until then, wait for the und.
04

Hundreds & thousands

Hundert and tausend both glue onto the front of the digit. No ein required for standalone — hundert by itself means 100, like English "a hundred" without the "one." Compound numbers stay one continuous word, however long.

no ein
100
hundert / einhundert
200
zweihundert
500
fünfhundert
900
neunhundert
1.000
tausend / eintausend
2.000
zweitausend
10.000
zehntausend
100.000
hunderttausend
202
zweihundertzwei
zwei + hundert + zwei
256
zweihundertsechsundfünfzig
200 + (6 und 50)
1.984
neunzehnhundertvierundachtzig
years often use 19-hundred + the rest
3.627
dreitausendsechshundertsiebenundzwanzig
3,000 + 600 + (7 und 20)
i
Dots and commas, flipped. German writes thousands with a period (1.000) and decimals with a comma (2,5 = zwei Komma fünf) — same as French/Italian, opposite of US English.
05

Millions & billions

Million and Milliarde are nouns — capitalized like all German nouns, written as separate words, and they pluralize. And the false friend that gets people fired in finance: a German Billion is 10¹², not 10⁹.

1 M
eine Million
2 M
zwei Millionen
55 M
fünfundfünfzig Millionen
10⁹
1 B
eine Milliarde
2 B
zwei Milliarden
10¹²
1 T
eine Billion
Deutsch
1.000.000.000
eine Milliarde

Long-scale Europe — same word as French milliard, Italian miliardo. A "Billion" is 1.000.000.000.000.

English (US)
1,000,000,000
one billion

Short scale. The cognate Billion in German news, finance, and law means a thousand times more — get this wrong on a wire transfer and you'll remember it forever.

!
Spaces around the noun. Unlike hundert and tausend which glue on, Million and Milliarde stay separate words. So 1.234.567 is eine Million zweihundertvierunddreißigtausendfünfhundertsiebenundsechzig — one big middle word, with Million spaced off at the front.
06

Things to remember

Five rules that will save you from the most common mistakes.

1.
Unit before ten, joined by und. Ein·und·zwanzig = 21. Sieben·und·achtzig = 87. Always.
2.
One long word. Everything below a million concatenates: dreitausendsechshundertsiebenundzwanzig = 3.627.
3.
Three spelling oddities in the tens: dreißig (30 uses ß), sech·zig (60 drops s), sieb·zig (70 drops en). Same drops on 16 and 17.
4.
Eins → ein in compounds. Eins standalone, einundzwanzig inside a number. The s comes back at the end: einhunderteins = 101.
5.
Beware Billion. In German that's 10¹². For 10⁹ — what English calls a billion — use Milliarde.
Drill it

Reading is one thing.
Hearing it at speed is another.

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